DENTAL CAST MOUNTING SYSTEM

FIELD OF ART

The invention relates to the field of art of human needs and more specifically to the field of health and even more specifically to the field of medical science. In particular it refers to the field of dentistry and devices for oral and dental hygiene. Specifically, it refers to a mounting system for dental casts.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The dental cast mounting system disclosed in the present invention has not been disclosed in the prior art.

To date, the mounting of dental casts by dentists and dental technicians is largely empirical. They usually try to align the tooth casts with the eyes of the patient's face, in order to achieve a symmetrical result. In an effort to achieve a more systematic approach to the mounting of dental casts, systems have been developed that use the level of the eyes of the patient as a reference level and at the same time the plane that passes through the middle of the distance between the eyes and essentially through the center of his nose as a vertical plane. In this way they try to keep the patient's face stable and at the same time to impress the dentition of the upper jaw in order to transfer it to the casts.

In contrast, the system presented herein is a system of mounting of dental casts, using as reference level, a plane that passes through the imaginary line that joins the mouth corners, is parallel to the ground and at the same time passes through the imaginary line that joins the eyes of the observer. The reason this particular level of reference is used is that it is identical to what the observer sees when he looks straight ahead at a man who is smiling and has his head in an upright position. It is a system that uses only aesthetic reference points, in order to transfer the articulated dental casts to an articulator and in a position, as the observer would see the natural teeth, if the above conditions were applicable.

As is well known, there is only one plane parallel to the ground, passing through the imaginary line that joins the observer's eyes when he looks straight ahead. At the same time there is only one level parallel to the ground, which passes through the mouth comers of a man who is smiling and has his head upright. As can be deduced from the above, there is only one plane parallel to the ground, which passes simultaneously through the mouth corners of the aforementioned man and the eyes of the observer, when the observer looks straight and the man has his head in an upright position. In this way we can consistently correlate the mouth corners of a smiling person, in relation to natural teeth, using a device that records the mouth corners and we can also define a line passing through the middle of a roller, the ends of which are equidistant from a straight workbench, as an imaginary line that connects the eyes of an observer looking straight.

If we define as ground level a bench parallel to the ground and bearing an articulator, as line of the observer's eyes looking straight ahead the line running through the middle of a roller placed parallel to the bearing bench and in the middle of the distance between the two legs of the articulator and we bring the mouth corners at the same level as this line, i.e. the line of the observer's eyes, then we will have succeeded in transferring the reference level we need, parallel to the bench and in the center of the articulator. Therefore we will have simulated the conditions, so that when we look straight and into the center of the articulator at the articulated casts, the latter should be in a position the same as that of the natural human teeth when the head is in an upright position in relation to the level of our bench.

It is thus an object of the present invention to advantageously deal with the aforementioned disadvantages and shortcomings of the prior art by proposing a dental cast mounting system.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a dental cast mounting system which uses as reference plane a plane which passes through the imaginary line joining the mouth comers, is parallel to the ground and at the same time passes through the imaginary line joining the eyes of the observer. It is also an object of the present invention to provide a dental cast mounting system which, using three separate devices, allows the dentist or dental technician to fully adjust and align the mouth corners with the ground, without deviations.

These and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become apparent in the following detailed description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art with reference to the accompanying drawings in which it is illustrated in an indicative non-limiting manner.

Figure 1 shows a 3D perspective view of the cast mounting device used in the present invention.

Figure 2 shows a plan view of the above device.

Figure 3 shows an already known mouth comer marking device used as part of the system of the present invention.

Figure 4 shows a pillar that the system uses to align the marks already drawn by the dentist.

Figure 5 shows a complete 3D illustration of the invention, with all its individual parts. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring now to the accompanying drawings, we will describe indicative embodiments of the dental cast mounting system.

Initially the dentist uses a device, already known in the state of art, for marking the mouth corners (1), Fig. 3, which has a thin mesh (2) fastened in a convex plastic component and a cylindrical handle (3) attached externally to this plastic component. The device has blades both up and down. The cylindrical handle (3) is located at the center of the convex plastic component, is joined vertically to it and at the same level as the thin mesh (2) inside the plastic. The cylindrical handle (3) serves as a handle for using the device in the mouth, but at the same time it can enter a second device. The whole component is made of plastic and is disposable for each person, whose his mouth corners are recorded. The device is inserted in such a way that its middle, which is marked, coincides with the midline of the face. Since only the fine mesh (2) is inserted between the upper and lower teeth, when they close, they are in maximum fit. The dentist asks the patient to smile, bringing his lips as back as possible (maximum smile). Using a marker, he/she puts two marks on the calibrated, convex plastic of the marking device (1), in the position where each mouth corner rests. If the mouth comers do not touch the plastic, he/she marks the positions of the projections of the lip commissures on the calibrated plastic, at the same level. After removing, the mouth corner marking device (1) is mounted on the cast mounting device (4). This device is intended to orient the mouth corner marking device (1) relative to ground level, using the cutting edges of the front teeth as center of rotation. With the aid of the cast mounting device (4), the mouth corner marking device (1) can be rotated both along the medial-lateral axis and along the anterior-posterior axis.

The construction of the cast mounting device (4), Fig. 1, is carried out by two vertical plates (5) between which a roller (6) is placed, normally rotating freely in the vertical plane. The mouth corner marking device (1) enters vertically into the roller (6) and is fixed in the center, by a screw (7), in any position in the horizontal plane. The roller (6) is held in the plates (5) with two horizontal screws (8), Fig. 2, one on either side, which hold the whole construction, while it is immobilized in any position at the front - rear level with two screws (9) perpendicular to it.

The mouth corner marking device (1) with the patient's teeth imprints and the marks of the mouth corners on it, is placed by means of the cylindrical handle (3), which is placed entirely into the hole (10) of the roller (6), of the cast mounting device (4) resting on the workbench. Holding the roller (6), which rotates along the front - rear axis at the zero point, as indicated on the cast mounting device (4), we bring the two marks corresponding to the mouth comers, evenly from the ground along the horizontal axis, turning the mouth comer marking device (1) accordingly into the roller (6). This is because when marking the mouth corners and depending on the position the marking device (1) has taken based on the chewing level of the teeth, when connected to the roller (6), these marks come at different heights relative to the ground. In this way we achieve to have one dimension (horizontal) of the chewing level of the teeth in relation to the ground. The roller (6) is then rotated so as to align these two marks with the horizontal line passing through its center. Thus we achieve that the marks in the mouth comer marking device (1), and hence the mouth comers, come at a level parallel to the ground that passes through the imaginary line of the observer's eyes and which is defined as the line that runs the center of the roller (6). In this way we achieve to have the second dimension (vertical) of the chewing level of the teeth in relation to the ground.

In an alternative embodiment of the invention, a pillar (11) may be used to align the mouth corner marking device (1), Fig. 4, this pillar (11) consisting of a curved flat metal piece (12), which is immobilized at an angle of 90 degrees on a base (13) of variable height. Also the surface of the piece (12) and the base (13) are parallel to each other and to the ground, so when the device rests on a straight workbench it is parallel to it. The curvature of this metal piece (12) is of a larger diameter relating to the mouth corner marking device (1), so that it can be located outside the device when coming close. With the help of the pillar (11) and by moving the mouth corner marking device (1), when it is inside the cast mounting device (4), as well as the roller (6) properly, we can bring the marks on the marking device (1) more easily in the right place.

In case there is an asymmetry in a patient's face, such that the line connecting the mouth comers is not parallel to the ground when we look at the patient from the front view, the dentist can choose the reference level with regard to which he wants to mount the casts. This means that he can use the middle line of the face or the line connecting the pupils of the eyes and associate the bite with the first or the second one. In this case, he can take a photo of the patient and draw these lines on it. Then, by measuring the angle of any of these lines, relative to the line between the mouth corners, it can adjust the bite to the cast mounting device (4) accordingly.

It should be noted at this point that the description of the invention has been made with reference to illustrative examples, but not limited thereto. Therefore any change or modification in anything concerning the shape, dimensions, morphology, materials used and components of construction and assembly, as long as they are not a new inventive step and do not contribute to the technical development of the already known are considered contained in the purposes and aspirations of this invention.